The invention relates to an in-plant rail-bound transport system with shuttles that travel on rails, wherein the system has stop bars to secure against overrunning of open rail ends or boundaries of travel paths, and is provided with stops, wherein stop bars engage the stops to prevent such overrunning.
Transport systems of this type are used both in the warehousing area and also in the production area and comprise shuttles. These are usually single-level rack serving machines, or so-called satellite vehicles or autonomous vehicles, which transport goods, with or without containers, and place them into, and remove them from, storage in the warehousing and production areas.
At the ends of the rail lines, buffers or stops which restrain the vehicles are provided for safety reasons. This is important, for example, in the event of malfunctions, in order to prevent a crash involving the vehicles or even undesired entry of the vehicles into specific rail areas.
DE 37 34 068 C2, for example, discloses an in-plant rail-bound transport system having vehicles which travel in a rail system with stationary rails and moveable rails, shunting wagons, lifts, turntables, etc. To prevent overrunning of open rail ends, the vehicles have at least one shock absorber and both the stationary and also the moveable rails each have at least one stop element which can move between an operational position, in which they stop the vehicle by abutment of the shock absorber, and an inoperative position in which they permit passage of the vehicle. The transfer of the stop elements from the operational position to the inoperative position is effected by an actuation device only if a moveable rail is positioned in such a way with respect to the stationary rail that a vehicle can run over the impact point.